Excuse Us While We Sing to the Sky
by orionproject
Summary: Castiel and Dean Winchester have no reason to interact. Until one day, they are paired up for a chemistry project. There is only one hitch. Castiel's foster sister, Anna, is harboring the largest crush on Dean. She employs Cas to try and talk her up to Dean. However, the more time Cas and Dean spend together, the more Dean starts to fall for the wrong Novak.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Sometime in the awkward days of high school, Castiel Novak had come to only two solid truths.

Chemistry was his least favorite class.

Tuesdays were the absolute worst day of the week.

The first one was due to the fact that he'd never understood a thing that was going on. He had never been able to straighten out all of the trends from the patterns and the Mendeleevs from the Moseleys. It was like reading elvish. Actually, it was worse. Castiel understood elvish, thanks to his childhood friend Charlie.

The second truth was just a basic fact. Mondays weren't all that bad, as he could still bask in the afterglow of the weekend. Wednesdays were in the middle of the week, so he could just keep thinking, "It's almost over." For Thursdays, Fridays were always just around the corner, and Fridays happened to be glorious. Tuesdays were simply hell. They weren't quite halfway through the week, they weren't close enough to the weekend, and on Tuesdays he had long block chemistry.

Tuesday mornings always meant a bombardment of questions from his foster sister Anna, and the practically scheduled, never-ending pestering about her dream boy. Dean Winchester.

Castiel was expected to know every detail about him, too. What kind of car he drove - a '67 Chevy Impala. How he combed his hair - Castiel didn't care, despite Anna's protests. What kind of body spray he used - not sure he even wore any. His whole life story...just no.

It wasn't that he didn't love Anna. She was the most darling sister he could have ever asked for, and he was constantly reminded how overjoyed he ought to be that they'd been placed in the same foster home. But Castiel just wasn't interested in stalking some boy. He was gay, but that didn't mean he was boy-crazy. And all of that was why Castiel was absolutely dreading crawling out of his cocoon of blankets. But he knew that Michael, his foster father, would tear him a new one if he didn't.

After somehow crawling out of the warmth of his bed, Castiel put on his usual outfit of jeans, a button-down shirt of some varying color, and his trench coat. Screw fashion standards. No one really messed with him anyway. One of the perks of being a junior was that the only people who could possible tease him were the seniors, and they were more done with high school than the juniors were.

When Castiel walked downstairs, he was practically attacked by Anna. He hopelessly shied away from her incoherent shouting. Random words broke through his sleep-hazed thoughts. "It's Tuesday! Dean...cute...everything. Tell me...report later." Castiel just rolled his eyes and smiled, pushing past her to get whatever breakfast his foster brother Gabriel had prepared.

Three hours later, Castiel entered his aggressively air-conditioned chemistry classroom and released a heavy, irrepressible sigh. As he made his way to his lab table, he looked up to realize that the normally empty seat next to his was now occupied by 6' 2" of an apparently attractive senior boy. None other than the 'dreamy' Dean Winchester. Castiel rolled his eyes and sat down. It was going to be a long class...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Dean rushed into long block chemistry, thinking he was late. He normally was. His little brother Sammy was still just a freshman, and Dean felt better walking him to his classes. So when he crashed into the room and found it empty of students, he was confused, to say the least. His teacher, Mr. Nichorsky, looked at him as though he'd grown four heads.

"Well! Isn't this an unusual occurrence. Imagine that...the infamous Dean Winchester being on time."

Dean put on his classic smirk and laughed, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Don't get too used to it, Nichorsky." He made his way over to his usual seat before hearing Mr. Nichorsky clear his throat loudly. Dean turned around and smiled tightly. "Yes, sir?"

"We'll be doing a project today, and I'd like you to sit with your lab partner. You will be working with Castiel Novak. He sits at lab table four." Dean sighed again, too loudly to be inconspicuous, and flopped down in one of the stools at lab table four.

He could only remember three things about Castiel.

His name was too confusing.

He once wore a sweater with bees on it, and Dean hadn't found it attractive at all. Nope. Not one bit. It totally didn't make him look like a cute puppy. Not at all.

He was really, really good at chemistry.

So Dean really had no reason to go into this project with a bad attitude.

When the bell finally rang after what had felt like ages, the other juniors and seniors began to file in. When Castiel entered, he frowned across the room in confusion at the boy occupying the seat beside his. Dean glimpsed the other boy's perplexed and then slightly frustrated expression. An expression that didn't quite sit well in Dean's stomach.

Dean always tried his hardest to get people to like him. He had learned that if they didn't like you, they would leave you. That's why his dad, John Winchester, had been away for so long. No rehab group was cause enough to go on a 'three-year trip'. It was just that John had never liked looking at Sammy and seeing his late wife in the kid's face. Dean seemed to be the only one who had ever understood that it wasn't Sammy's fault that Mary had passed a day after childbirth. No one could have saved her.

Anyway, the look of frustration stayed plastered on Castiel's not exactly unattractive face as the rest of the students entered the room and took their seats. Mr. Nichorsky launched into an explanation of their new project, make a period table using a different subject. Basically, make it organized based on something other than elements.

Castiel and Dean spent half of the two hour period trying to come to an agreement over what their overarching subject should be. Castiel wanted to do it on types of bees. (It wasn't cute at all). And Dean wanted to do it on types of cars.

Both made compelling cases for their own. Castiel's actually related back to science. But Dean was so passionate about his that he'd actually put some effort into it.

They eventually came to a compromise when Mr. Nichorsky suggested they just do it on different people's interests and divide them further. So they split their table into four sections, one for Dean, one for Castiel, one for Sammy (Castiel was more than happy to include him once Dean explained he was his own kid brother), and Anna (and Dean figured it was only fair that Castiel got to put in someone he lived with as well). And by the time the whole chart was divided nicely like they wanted, the period was almost over.

Dean suddenly stood up, effectively knocking over his stool and causing a loud bang. Everyone in the class turned to look at their table and stayed looking for a solid minute. Dean flashed a smirk that showed he was only slightly sorry to everyone, then looked back too see an embarrassed Castiel. The smirk slipped off his face as he saw that Castiel was curling in on himself, his face tomato red, and hands clutching the huge trench coat that enveloped him. Dean tentatively placed his hand on Castiel's shoulder. The raven haired boy's head shot up to level his state with Dean's. That was when Dean fully realized how freaking blue the other boy's eyes were. It wasn't something he would normally notice, and that was what caused him to look away. Dean's hand slipped off Castiel's shoulder and he bent to pick up the stool mumbling,"umm...sorry Castiel. Didn't meant to make such a noise."

"Ugh," The other boy sighed, seemingly unembarrassed again. "Castiel is such a formal name. Please, figure out some shorter way to refer to me." The other boy's response shocked Dean to say the least. He had never heard something sound so casual and so business at the same time. All he could do was smile and laugh lightly.

After a moment, he cleared his throat and said, "Okay then, Cas". Dean stopped to think before he continued, "Yeah...Cas. I have to go pick up my brother from his basic law study course across the school before the huge rush. Don't want the kid to get crushed by everyone right? He's is gonna grow like a weed soon but he's still a little sprout ya know?" Dean soon realized he was rambling and suddenly cut off. All he could think to do to salvage whatever dignity he had left was to offer a short nod to Cas before turning and leaving the class.

When Dean stepped into the hallway, he veered to the nearest row of lockers and placed his head in his hands. This is going to be a very long project.


End file.
